Skyscrapers named after Donald Trump in America

Donald Trump is well known for his love of skyscrapers, he has developed numerous skyscrapers. And he likes use the name of himself to name the buildings that he developed or owned, and then show the buildings especially the one in New York City to the audience in his TV shows. A significant feature of these buildings is that the logo that reads TRUMP are installed at some parts of the buildings, for New York City, Chicago, they are installed at the base of the building that can be seen on the street, but for Las Vegas and other similar cities the logo is even be installed at the uppermost part hence can be seen in a long distance, the name of TRUMP gradually became a symbol of luxury and a renowned brand.

Donald Trump and his building Trump Tower

Then Donald Trump began to license his brand name to other developers, now a large percent of the buildings with the name of Trump are actually not developed by Trump himself, but by other developers who paid the licensing fee to him, and sometimes he develops the buildings in cooperation with other developers.

These years America didn't see many skyscrapers built like it did in last century, the honor of the tallest building has been given away to some Asian cities like Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, and for many years China keeps constructing more skyscrapers or even many times more than America every year.

This is one of the most important factors of why Trump says that America doesn’t win anymore. Indeed, America is being surpassed by Asian countries in this aspect. So Donald Trump set his slogan of presidential campaign as "Make America Great Again!". It can be sure that Donald Trump does hope that one day he can also build a tallest building in the world, like what developers in Middle East and China are doing, and the city to be chose to has that building would be New York City or Chicago, or some other cities in America, this is important, he want it to be in America, as he wants to see America to go back to the days when all the tallest buildings built in the world were in New York City or Chicago rather than in Middle East cities or Chinese cities.

As mentioned above, Donald Trump has licensed his brand name to other developers all around the world and sometimes develops in cooperation with them, Trump towers can be found in many cities around the world. They cannot be summarized in one post, this post only focus on the buildings named after Trump that located in America.

Below is a list of skyscrapers at least 200 meters tall named after Trump that go from tallest to the shortest, and all the buildings are only located in America.

Trump World Trade Center

Donald Trump standing besides the model of the Trump World Trade Center

Standard height & Roof height: 450 meters (1476 feet)

Floor count: 115

City: New York City

This is a vision project, but it's the tallest among these buildings, so it's worth to mention it here, but other visions and failed projects will not be included here. I will write a post focused on visions and cancelled projects developed by Donald Trump later. Note this is not the tallest buildings envisioned by Donald Trump if the buildings not named after Trump but developed by him are included.

This project was envisioned by Ken Gardner, who used to participate in the design of the original World Trade Center as a structural engineer.

He first named his concept as Twin Towers II, by the coincidence Donald Trump had the very same idea. He dislikes the design of Freedom Tower, saying that is just made of a pile of junk, he wants a stronger twin towers to be built in Downtown, he became the most renowned backer of Gardner's plan, therefore the project got its name of Trump World Trade Center.

Donald Trump tried to persuade the developer to rebuild the Twin Towers through collecting the petition of citizens, he collected a considerable amount of that but still failed to make developer adopt his idea.

Trump International Hotel and Tower

Trump International Hotel and Tower with Lake Michigan in the background

In July 2001 Donald Trump announced he would build the tallest building in the world in Chicago with a height of 457 meters, surpassing the 452 m Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, which were the tallest buildings in the world by that time. But he changed the idea after the September 11 attacks which occurred two months later.

At last the tower was set to be 423 meters tall measured to its tip of spire, and only 357 meters without the spire.

Except of retail spaces and restaurants set at the bottom of the tower, the tower mainly functions as hotels and residences, it includes a hotel containing 339 suits, and residential floors featuring 486 luxury condominium units.

The tower was designed by Adrian Smith of SOM, the same architect who later designed renowned Burj Khalifa.

The tower was heavily featured in 2011 American science fiction action film Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which grossed $1.12 billion of box office worldwide.

The Trump Building

The Trump Building in Lower Manhattan

Architectural height: 283 meters (927 feet)

Spire-removed height: 273 meters (896 feet)

Built year: 1930

City: New York City

The building is formally known as 40 Wall Street, it is one of most iconic buildings in Manhattan, it and America International Building both are always seen as Empire State Building of Lower Manhattan.

Trump Building was built in 1930, and held the title of tallest building of the world for two months before the completion of Chrysler Building.

The building was named Bank of Manhattan Trust Building when first built, Donald Trump bought the building in 1995 and renamed it The Trump Building, and like other buildings named after Trump, the name logo is distinctively stalled at the bottom part of the building.

After September 11 accident The Trump Building became the tallest building of Downtown since the former tallest twin towers had fallen down. As of 2017, it is 4th tallest building in Lower Manhattan, after two new towers of the rebuilt World Trade Center, and 30 Park Place.

Trump World Tower

Trump World Tower at the riverside

Architectural height & Roof height: 262 meters (861 feet)

Built year: 2001

City: New York City

Standing at 262 meters, the tower is the tallest all-residential tower developed by Donald Trump. Like Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, this tower named after Trump is also wrapped with black glass curtain wall, and 60 meters taller than it. Trump World Tower briefly held the title of tallest residential building in the world, before the completion of the 21st Century Tower in Dubai.

Many neighbors and community groups opposed the building before the construction. There are many reasons behind the oppositions, one of the them is its height, its significant height would dwarf the United Nations Headquarters which situated only 330 meters away, and the neighbors argued that the tower would block views.

The other reasons come from its appearance, the whole black cladding makes it lack of distinct surface features and visually unappealing, and also seems out of character with the surrounding buildings. However at last the opponents lost the suit in state court.

Trump Tower

Trump Tower

Architectural height & Roof height: 202 meters (664 feet)

Built year: 1983

City: New York City

Trump Tower is served as the headquarters of Trump Organization and also the home of Trump family members. Trump said he will keep living in it after he becomes the president. Trump Tower has a total of 58 actual floors, but the highest floor which Trump family lives in is numbered 68.

The tower is regularly featured in NBC's reality show "The Apprentice", which hosted by Donald Trump, and he often brags on the tower, e.g. posting its interior pictures to social medias. Standing at 202m, Trump tower is the 70th tallest building in New York City, however height is not the most important factor, the building has some unique architectural features.

Trump Tower is designed to has many jagged corners at the base floors, a noted feature of the tower is that many trees are planted on these jagged corners, which can be rarely found on other skyscrapers in New York City currently.

Apart from The Apprentice the tower also shows in the 2012 American film Dark Knight Rises as the headquarters of Wayne Enterprises.

Trump International Hotel & Tower 1 Las Vegas

Trump International Hotel & Tower 1 in Las Vegas

Architectural height & Roof height: 189 meters (622 feet)

Built year: 2008

City: Las Vegas

Trump International Hotel & Tower 1 is the 3rd tallest building in Las Vegas, the building is covered by dazzling gold color facades. And there's a large logo of TRUMP installed at the uppermost part of the building. The tower is a mixed-use building that features residential condominiums, hotels and restaurants.

As its name suggests, the tower is the first building of the complex, there's a second tower next to it planned by Donald Trump along with Tower 1, but due to the financial difficulties the project was put on hold, as the economy persistently recovers it is only a matter of time for the Tower 2 to get built.